Mrs B always joined them in the sitting room after she’d finished her chores. It was cosy in there with the log fire crackling away in the grate. Dad looked happier than she’d ever seen him and she was glad for him.
To give them some time alone in the evening she’d assumed the task of making the cocoa. After she’d taken their drinks into them she went to bed. Usually she was so tired she fell asleep immediately, but tonight she couldn’t settle.
She was downstairs and getting the breakfast on the go before Mrs B appeared. At seven o’clock, her usual time for coming down, the telephone rang.
‘I’ll get it. No need for all of us to get cold in the passageway.’
Her heart was hammering as she lifted the handset, dreading what she might hear.
‘Ellie, darling, sorry to ring so early but I guessed you would be worried. I won’t be able to call you anymore as we’re doing night flying training.’
‘I don’t mind if you don’t call if I know you’re safe. Dad’s told me I’ve got to get used to not hearing from you so often and he’s right. Just ring whenever you get a moment, if I’m not here you can leave a message with Mrs B.’
‘Good show. I’ll be home Christmas Eve. Neil and I have arranged to meet at Romford and will get a taxi so there’s no need for you to come and collect us.’ There was the sound of someone speaking in the background. ‘Sorry, sweetheart, duty calls.’
She replaced the receiver and turned to see both her father and Mrs B hovering anxiously in the kitchen door. ‘Night flying – he’s absolutely fine.’
‘Glad to hear it, Ellie love. I don’t think any of us got much sleep last night. I’ll give you a hand with the pigs this morning as I can’t do anything in the fields until the snow goes.’
‘When we’ve finished will you help me get the chain on Greg’s bike? I’ve painted it in patriotic colours – I doubt that anyone else on the base will have a red white and blue bicycle.’
‘I can do it after lunch, Ellie. One of the tenants has a problem with his roof and I said I’d go and have a look.’
‘I managed to get the chain on Neil’s but some reason I’m finding it hard to do it on this one.’
Mrs B beamed at her. ‘I think it’s a lovely idea, doing up those old cycles for your brother and young man. They’ll be ever so pleased with their Christmas presents. What colour have you painted the other one?
‘I’ve just painted the frame red and left the rest in the original black. I’m so looking forward to having them both home. It’s going to be a very special Christmas.’
Twenty-two
Ellie went up in the loft and after a lot of rummaging discovered a box of Christmas bits and pieces. She carried them downstairs and plonked them on the kitchen table.
‘I don’t think you’ll find anything decent in there, Ellie,’ her father said. ‘They are the things that went up when I was a boy.’
‘All the more reason to use them this year. We’ve got plenty of holly and even a couple of sprigs of mistletoe and Mrs B is a dab hand at making flower arrangements.’
‘That I am, love, and I’m looking forward to doing it, I can tell you.’ She put a second larger cardboard box beside the first. ‘I’ve got plenty of pretty decorations in here, and two sets of electric tree lights. My hubby and I liked things to be jolly. I know they say that decorations are for the children, but just because we weren’t blessed with any it didn’t mean we had to do without.’
This was the longest speech Ellie had heard the housekeeper make since she’d arrived a few months ago. ‘When are you bringing in the tree, Dad? I want to have it decorated before Neil and Greg arrive on Christmas Eve.’
‘It doesn’t do to bring it in too soon as the needles will drop before twelfth night. I got one with good roots and it’s already planted up in a nice pot. If I put it back in the ground, we should be able to use it every year.’
Ellie was rummaging through both boxes. ‘Look at these, Dad, they open out into bells and huge balls. I didn’t know you could make things like this out of tissue paper.’
Mrs B smiled proudly. ‘There’s tissue paper chains as well, more than enough to make the dining room and sitting room look really pretty. I know there’s a war on but I managed to get everything I wanted at Woolworths when I went into town. Apart from so many of our men being in France I don’t think this is going to be much different from any other Christmas.’
Dad sucked on his pipe. ‘The government’s telling us to show a fighting spirit and not let that blooming Hitler see we’re down-hearted. Prices went up in the beginning but I reckon things are about the same now as they were before.’
‘I’ve only seen a Christmas tree with lights in other people’s houses, and in Romford in the town square. We never had a stocking and Mum made sure we didn’t believe in Father Christmas. This year it’s going to be different. I’m doing a stocking for each of us as well as a gift to put under the tree.’
He chuckled. ‘I hope you’re not intending to bring the bikes in, Ellie.’
‘Of course not. I’ve wrapped up a picture of their bikes and am going to put those under the tree.’
She began to collect little items to put in each stocking. Sugar mice and homemade fudge in pretty boxes would do for everyone but she needed different things for the men, Mrs B and Dad. The handkerchiefs embroidered with their initials had been a great find in the small haberdashers in the village.
